Comments on: Living Testimony Of Saint John Of Shanghai https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2019/11/living-testimony-of-saint-john-of-shanghai Sat, 09 Nov 2019 23:43:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 By: Fr. John Koen https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2019/11/living-testimony-of-saint-john-of-shanghai#comment-802 Sat, 09 Nov 2019 23:43:51 +0000 https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/?p=26667#comment-802 St. Archbishop John has long been a friend of & intercessor of our family. He helped us very much during our very difficult transition into Orthodoxy, while on mission in England. At one point, our #2 daughter was having great pain and difficulty hearing in one ear. We tried taking her to a clinic & couldn’t be seen. We came back, & a visiting Russian Hieromonk, who had Vladyka John’s Epitrahelion, went w/ us into our house chapel, put the blessed Epitrahelion over our daughter’s head, & prayed for Vladyka John’s blessing. Our daughter was soon healed.
We went through great difficulty trying to find help finding our way into Orthodoxy, more so after our son was born (we have 4 daughters & 1 son). One day, I was praying in our chapel, venerating all of the icons. When I came to the icon of Vladyka John, I was stunned to find, under his right eye, a noticeable crystal- like bump. Thinking it was something that didn’t belong there (& feeling bad for that), I carefully removed it. To my greater amazement, a few days later, it was back again!! I left it then, realizing that Vladyka John had shed a tear for us, to console us in our sorrows!

One time, I flew from a small regional airport, near where we lived, to Amsterdam, on church business. My 2 oldest daughters were with me.
Right after boarding the plane & taking our seats. I suddenly felt strongly, to pray to Vladyka John, asking for his blessing & protection. Soon after that, we were all told to please leave the plane & wait in the terminal for a different plane. It turned out that a serious problem with that plane had been discovered, which could have caused it to crash. We were very thankful!
Later on, having had to close our business (the economy was struggling), we were trying to make ends meet. We prayed for Vladyka John’s help. We started finding packages of food on our doorstep. Then, while cleaning, we found, in a closet, a small purse with a fair bit of money in it, that hadn’t ever been there before.
We were so thankful!

There is more, but I hesitate to share some things that might be very hard to believe, they are so far out of the ordinary, but confirmed by people with good spiritual discernment. I am an ordinary man, who has repeatedly found himself in extraordinary circumstances, with extraordinary people. God has had, and has, mercy on me and my family, for which I am very, very grateful. Glory be to God! And glory be to God in His Saints! Blessings to all who perchance read these things!

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